stage 10 : Prince Albert's birthday

Oxford Reading Stage 10: Snapdragons: Prince Albert's Birthday



Jane Clarke (Author)



Written by top children's authors such as award-winning Gillian Cross, Malachy Doyle and Pippa Goodhart Snapdragons are fabulously illustrated with various writing styles and fonts to make reading enjoyable for all your infant readers. They provides a wide range of picture books for children aged 3-9. Easy-to-use reading notes for parents/carers are included on the inside cover of each book. This book is also available as part of a mixed pack of 6 different books or a class pack of 36 books of the same Oxford Reading Tree stage. Each book pack comes with a free copy of invaluable teaching notes.

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BLURB


One of the presents causes trouble on Prince Albert's birthday.



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What is the story about?

When Queen Victoria asks her butler to get a beaver hat for Prince Albert's birthday, he doesn't hear her properly, and gets a real beaver instead. queen Victoria is not amused, but Prince Albert and their children all want to keep it, until it chews up the furniture to build a dam in their home. They then take the beaver to a zoo, and Prince Albert vows never to have another hat made from beaver skin. Queen Victoria asks the butler to get a bowler hat instead, but he mis-hears again, leaving us to imagine what happens next.



Talk together

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Look at the cover and read the title together. Ask, "What do you think the story will be about? Is it a modern story or set in the past?" LOOK through the book together, focusing on the illustrations , and identity the characters and when it takes place.


READ THE STORY


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Encourage your child to read the story aloud to you, and join in with the enjoyment.


If your child misreads words, ask him/her to reread the sentence and check it makes sense, but don't let your child struggle for long or he/she may lose the sense of the story.


Encourage your child to notice the punctuation of spoken words, and to read with expression, eg. raising voice tone at the end of a sentence with a question mark, and emphasising when there is an exclamation mark.

When your child encounters unusual words and phrases, eg. 'trifle heavy' (page 4), 'spiffing' (page 9), parlour (page 15), ask him/her to suggest their meaning. Explain that these words and phrases were more common in Victorian times.


On page 9, ask your child to suggest why 'DONG' is written in increasingly large print. Encourage your child to read words in capital letters with emphasis.


At the end of the book, ask your child what he/she enjoyed most about it.



PLAY A GAME..

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Speaking like a QUEEN

This game will help your child read dialogue with expression suited to the characters.


Talk with your child about the characters in the story.

Ask your child, "What sort of people are Queen Victoria, James, Albert, and Alice?"

Reread the dialogue from the story, taking it in turns to read each character's spoken words in an expression voice.

Emphasise the differences to make the reading more dramatic.


OTHER IDEAS



Talk about Victorian times with your child, and if possible, find other books and stories from the same period for him/her to read.


Look through the story and ask your child to retell it in his/her own words, using the illustrations.











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:)